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Detroit will become the epicenter of the resurgent vinyl-record business this week, as key players hit town for a new industry convention.

Jack White is among the scheduled speakers at Making Vinyl, which will bring about 300 of the industry's movers and shakers to the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel on Monday and Tuesday.

The conference comes as vinyl records continue to make their mark in a digital music world, registering 11 straight years of annual sales growth.

Setting out to “reinforce that vinyl’s rebirth is not a fad,” as organizers put it, the event will include panels such as “The Audiophile Vinyl Workflow” and “The Fine Art of Mastering & Lathe Cutting.” Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels and Record Store Day cofounder Michael Kurtz will join White as keynote speakers.

“When we came up with the (convention) idea, we were realistic that 100 people would feel like a success,” said Kurtz, who helped arrange the event. “I think it’s a testament to the maturity of vinyl that we’ve got such high attendance, because it really is a burgeoning industry.”

Making Vinyl, overseen by the South Carolina manufacturing co-op Colonial Purchasing, is drawing personnel from across the vinyl business in North America, Europe and Japan — manufacturers, distributors, printers, suppliers, record labels, retailers. Registration is closed, and the event is not open to the public.

“As a company, Third Man is arguably the most dynamic and innovative when it comes to manufacturing vinyl,” Kurtz said. “The fact that Jack White is this iconic artist — to my mind, the Jimi Hendrix or David Bowie of our time — for his organization to be involved is magic. It’s everything you could ever want.”

Record Store Day cofounder Michael Kurtz(Photo: Brad Trent)

Few have been more intimately involved in the vinyl boom this past decade than Kurtz. Record Store Day, which he helped launch in 2008, has become a global celebration of indie music retailers, with artists offering custom vinyl releases each April and — since 2010 — on Black Friday each November.

Specialties for this year’s Black Friday event on Nov. 24 will include a 12-inch version of U2’s “The Blackout,” pressed at Third Man’s Detroit plant. Others on tap include records by Snoop Dogg, Muddy Waters and Paul McCartney, who linked up with the Roots for a new recording of 1979’s “Wonderful Christmastime.”

“Back (in 2008) all the media coverage was that record stores were doomed. Business was decent — really good, actually — but the coverage was so negative,” said Kurtz. “That’s why we threw the idea out there to have a party, a celebration of artists. But we didn’t know then it would turn into this vinyl explosion.”

The phenomenon has been well chronicled, but the numbers are still eye-popping: Vinyl album sales in the U.S. hit 13 million in 2016, according to Nielsen Music — up nearly 600% since 2008. While physical sales are still dominated by CDs, vinyl accounted for more than 11% last year.

That demand has spurred a flurry of new and retooled record plants. At the time of Record Store Day’s founding, the manufacturing turnaround on a vinyl project was about two months, Kurtz said, but as record sales began to surge and orders backed up, the wait doubled in many cases. Today, with new facilities on line and business getting refined, turnaround times are back to 2008 levels.

Katie Lass of Hamtramck, left, and Alejandra Villegas of Detroit produce limited-edition vinyl records during the opening of Third Man Pressing in Detroit on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.(Photo: John Froelich, Special to the Free Press)

This week’s conference is convening stakeholders to keep streamlining the vinyl pipeline.

“Part of what we want to do is internally work out production concerns and innovations that can make things better,” said Kurtz.

Making Vinyl will also include the Alex Awards ceremony at 7 p.m. Monday, honoring album art and packaging in eight categories. The convention will wrap up Tuesday with a tour of Third Man Pressing.